Hornettes Surpass Two Milestones Butz Collects Her 200th

Emmaus Posts 300th Win In 25th Year

December 12, 1985|by RICKI STEIN, The Morning Call

There were only two Class AAA field hockey teams in Pennsylvania this fall with one loss marring their records. One of them was Emmaus. The other was Unionville. And neither of them made it to the final four of the PIAA State Championships.

The Emmaus Green Hornettes posted a 20-1-1 record, with their only loss to Easton in the finals of the District 11 AAA Championship and their only tie to Boyertown in a pre-season game. It was the fourth year in a row that Emmaus and Easton have met in the finals of the district tournament; each has won two crowns.

"I still feel we're a better team than Easton," Emmaus coach Sue Butz said last Thursday night before she headed to the school's fall sports banquet. "The longer you stay undefeated, the more the probability increases that you'll get beat, especially by a team that you already beat.

"Easton had the psychological edge in the district final," Butz continued. "It was the same thing three years ago. We had beaten them three times that season and they beat us in the district final. It's the motivation factor. Next year, if we get into the same situation, I'll have to instill in the girls that even though they have the better skills, they have to put out their best effort."

Ginny Huber started field hockey at Emmaus in 1960. In 15 years of coaching, Huber led the Hornettes to seven league championships. So when Butz, who graduated from Allen High School in '71, took over as coach 10 years ago, she felt slightly intimidated. Her first couple of years were complicated by the 1970s trend in which students didn't go out for sport.

But Butz overcame the rough start. Her Hornettes have won the last seven East Penn Conference Championships and two district crowns. This year's squad surpassed two milestones: more than 300 victories in the team's 25 years of existence and more than 200 victories in Butz's personal coaching record.

Before coming to Emmaus, the West Chester University graduate coached for a year at Nether Providence High School and for a year in Australia.

"The kids didn't even think I was American," Butz said, chuckling as she remembered her first Emmaus squad. "I had picked up an Australian accent."

Every squad since has had little trouble understanding her . . . or the videotapes that she and assistant Diedre Richardson have taken of each game in the last four years to show the girls their mistakes.

"Seeing is believing," Butz said. "At practice I can keep telling a girl to get her stick down on the ground, and she'll say it is. Then when she sees it on tape, she'll say, 'Hey, it wasn't on the ground.' It helps them understand better and work together as a unit. You only learn from your mistakes."

Each of Butz's teams has featured a range of talent and personalities and some of the brightest students in the school. This year's team featured the largest group of overall athletes.

"We were blessed to have a lot of kids with speed, quickness and endurance," Butz said. "And overall I think they cared very much. They displayed a sense of genuine dedication and responsiblity to themselves and to the coaches. And they all pursued a common goal, which in field hockey is very important. They worked together very well. They were unselfish on the field. Individually I know they had goals set for themselves, but when it was time to play, they were unselfish. They strove for excellence."

At last week's banquet, senior center back MaryEllen Jaskuta received the Most Valuable Player award named for Jean Hecht, the woman who brought field hockey to the Lehigh Valley. She coached at Muhlenberg and died of cancer in the mid 70s. Butz's mother Lucy, who was a friend of Hecht's, sponsors the award each year. Jaskuta was the backbone of the Emmaus team.

The Most Improved Player award went to senior left-outer Kristin Miller, who was the team's leading scorer with 21 goals.

The William Grim award (named for the late father of former players Lisa and Jane Grim) goes to the player who did the most for field hockey in her career. This year it went to senior left inner Amy Stavin, who was the only girl to earn four varsity letters for field hockey of the graduating group. Her 49 goals put her second on the list of all-time career scoring leaders.

In May, at the school's all-sports banquet, one member of the team will receive the Players' Player award. The team members voted for the girl with whom they'd most like to play no matter where in the world they might be.

In addition to the three receiving awards, Lisa Gottshcall is also graduating. She transferred to the school from Boyertown as a junior. Eight starters will return with experience next year. They are Tracy Stauffer, Jill Smith, Erin Kenyon, Stacie Reichard, Kim Sherwin, Sharon Heilig, goalie Terri Hamrich and Jill Cincera. The other members of this year's team were Toni McCormack, Heather Weiss, Kris Bolich and Kim Barner.

The group will return knowing how to win. After they lost their last game of the season, Butz said that at first, "they thought they had disappointed me. But I told them that had nothing to do with the outcome. I'm disappointed that we didn't win, but I know they tried their best. It was a difficult task out there. Yes, you do learn more from losing than from winning."

The timing of the loss was worth a bookful for the Hornettes. They'll study their mistakes and try for another top notch season next year . . . and undoubtedlyadd another gold-braided season to the field hockey history stacks.